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When the late pianist Arthur Rubinstein was asked why he no longer performed in Germany, he said “That is a sad question that I have answered too often.�� The truth was that he had over 100 family members killed by the Nazis and when he lived in Paris during World War two, they took 71 of his music manuscripts. The Germans finally did return them but not until after his death.

I have always been fascinated by the masterful Arthur Rubinstein and his genius at the piano. Reading “The Great Pianists�� by the wonderful author Harold C. Schonberg was a special pleasure and I listened to Rubinstein's music for weeks after reading this book. The biographies of these great pianists-composers were amazing and I want to immerse myself even more in their music now.

Favorite Profiles include: Clara Schumann, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt, Vladimir Horowitz, Van Cliburn and Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

The author Harold C. Schonberg was the chief music critic of The New York Times from 1960 to 1980. His reviews and essays on opera and classical music are must reads for serious music lovers and won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1971, the first for a music critic.

Highly recommend this book. I gave it four stars.